Apparatus and method for replacing a media content item

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for outputting a media content item includes a receiver arranged to receive a first media content item, and an output device arranged to output the first item to a user. A selection device is provided for user-operably inputting a command to replace the first item at a particular moment of outputting the first item. Further, a time-estimating device is arranged to estimate, upon inputting the command, an estimated period of time necessary for outputting the remaining part of the first item. A search device is arranged to search for at least one second media content item, wherein a duration of the second item is substantially equal to the estimated period of time.

The invention relates to an apparatus for outputting a media contentitem, the apparatus comprising a receiver arranged to receive a firstmedia content item, and output means arranged to output said first itemto a user.

The invention also relates to a method of outputting a media contentitem, the method comprising a step of receiving a first media contentitem, and a step of outputting said first item to a user.

Document WO99/37045 discloses a digital radio broadcast system providinginteractive features of skip forward and skip backward. Data may betransmitted at a faster than real time rate and accumulated in a bufferat a receiver. Alternatively, two or more programming channels may becommunicated so that a user can move directly from a current track tothe beginning of a track on another channel. The user can play a currenttrack or skip to subsequent or earlier tracks. Data may also betransmitted which designates access points for program segments to allowthe user to skip forward or backward to a program segment which isstored in the buffer while playing current program segments.

An application of such a system is limited to the digital radiobroadcast. The proposed ways of transmitting and/or receiving the datamay not be suitable for some broadcasters and/or users.

The user is limited to choosing only between tracks or segments whichare provided by the broadcaster and can be stored in the buffer. At thesame time, the user may not like any of the content which is stored inthe buffer.

It is an object of the present invention to obviate the drawback of theprior art, and to provide an apparatus enabling the user to replace themedia item in a user-friendly and unlimiting manner.

This object is realized in that the apparatus of the present inventionis characterized by

selection means for user-operably inputting a command to replace saidfirst item at a particular moment of outputting said first item, and

time-estimating means arranged to estimate, upon inputting said command,a period of time necessary for outputting a remaining part of said firstitem, and

search means arranged to search for at least one second media contentitem, wherein a duration of said at least one second item issubstantially equal to said period of time.

In this way, when the first media content item, e.g. a song, isoutputted, the user may instruct the apparatus to skip this first item.Usually, the user would like to skip the first item after it has beenoutputted for some time. The period of time, a duration of the remainingpart of said first item from the particular moment of inputting the usercommand to skip said first item till the end of outputting said firstitem may be estimated by said time-estimating means. Another item may beoutputted after said estimated period of time, for example, as inbroadcast radio wherein audio content items are broadcast one afteranother.

The time-estimating means may be arranged to estimate said period oftime by estimating a duration of the outputted part of the first item,determining a total duration of the first item, and deducting theduration of the outputted part of the first item from the total durationof the first item. To estimate the duration of the outputted part of thefirst item, the time estimating means may comprise a timer counting thecurrent time in the apparatus. The total duration of the first item maybe determined, for example, by identifying said first item in a databasestoring data pertaining to a duration of a plurality of media contentitems.

For replacing said first item, one or many second items each of whichhas a duration equal or approximately equal to said estimated period oftime may be searched for by said search means. The apparatus may locallystore media content items, e.g. by recording broadcast songs. If morethan one of such second items is found, one of them may be selected onthe basis of user preferences or other criteria. Then, the second itemwhich fits this period of time may be outputted by the output means.

A time of searching said second item may be estimated by saidtime-estimating means. The outputting of the first item may beinterrupted not immediately after the moment of user-operably inputtingthe command to skip the first item but upon expiration of said searchingtime when the second item is presumably found. Alternatively, theoutputting of the first item may be interrupted only when the seconditem is found.

The object is also realized in that the method of the present inventionis characterized by

a step of user-operably inputting a command to replace said first itemat a particular moment of outputting said first item,

a step of estimating, upon inputting said command, a period of timenecessary for outputting a remaining part of said first item, and

a step of searching for at least one second media content item, whereina duration of said at least one second item is substantially equal tosaid period of time.

The method describes the steps of operation of the apparatus accordingto the present invention.

These and other aspects of the invention will be further elucidated anddescribed with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a functional block diagram of the apparatus suitable forimplementing the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the method according to the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 shows a time diagram elucidating the functioning of theapparatus.

FIG. 1 shows a functional block diagram of an embodiment of theapparatus 100. The apparatus comprises a receiver 110 for receivingmedia content items, e.g. songs, broadcast programs such as radioprograms, etc. The apparatus also comprises output means 120 foroutputting at least one media content item to a user, i.e. reproducingthe song or other audio content, selection means 130 enabling the userto input a command to replace the media content item at a particularmoment of outputting said item by said output means 120. For example, asituation in which the user does not like the content being reproducedmay happen quite often with broadcast content, and the user may inputthe command to stop and replace outputting said content. The selectionmeans 130 may be implemented with generally known input devices such asa remote control unit, keyboard, pointing device like a mouse, etc.

The apparatus 100 includes time-estimating means 140 and search means150. The time estimating means 140 are arranged to estimate a durationof a remaining part of the media item to be skipped, upon the userinputting the command to replace the media item at a particular momentof outputting said item. The time-estimating means may be coupled to theselection means 130, output means 120 and search means. The search means150 may also be coupled to the output means and selection means, andsaid means are arranged to search for at least one second media contentitem suitable for replacing the first item being outputted at the momentof inputting the user command. The search means may search for one ormany second media items, whose duration may be substantially equal tothe duration of the remaining part of the first media item to beskipped. Alternatively, the search means may search for two or moresecond items, a total duration of which may be substantially equal tothe duration of the remaining part of the first media item to bereplaced.

The duration of the remaining part of the media item to be skipped maybe estimated in many ways. For example, the time-estimating means maydetermine a starting time of reproducing the first item to be replaced,and a time of user inputting the command for replacing said first item.In this way, a duration of the part of the first item which has beenoutputted is estimated. When a total duration of the first item isknown, the duration of the remaining part of the media item may befound.

In one example, the total duration of the first item may be obtainedfrom a broadcaster that transmits digital broadcast signals includingthe first media content item and meta-data comprising informationpertaining to said first item such as its total duration. In a furtherexample, a stream of digital information having segments which areprovided with time stamps may be transmitted with such digital signals.Values of such time stamps may start from zero at the beginning of thefirst item till the total duration of the first item. In this way, thetime-estimating means may obtain the duration of the part of the firstitem which has been outputted from a time stamp of segment beingoutputted at the moment of user inputting the command to replace saidfirst item.

In another example, the total duration of the first item may bedetermined by first identifying the first item in a duration database160 storing data pertaining to a duration of a plurality of mediacontent items, and then retrieving from said database the total durationof said first item. The duration database may store a plurality ofrecords comprising duration data and identification data. Theidentification data may comprise information necessary for the timeestimating means to identify a particular media item in the durationdatabase and retrieving the total duration from the durationcorresponding to said item. For instance, the identification data may bemerely a title of the media item. The title of the first item may beincorporated in the meta-data transmitted to the apparatus 100 togetherwith the first media content item itself, but the total duration of thefirst item may not be included in the meta-data. Then, such a title maybe used for identifying the first item in the duration database.Alternatively, the identification data may be simply media datacorresponding to a part of the first item, sufficient to identify thissong, or other data. To identify the first media item, thetime-estimating means may compare the part of the first item which hasbeen outputted with said identification media data pertaining to thevarious items in the database 160. In that case, no additionalinformation such as the meta-data are necessary at all, and theinvention may be implemented with the traditional broadcast systemswithout special formats of media content for including additionalinformation about said media content, such as the identificationinformation.

In one of the embodiments of the present invention, the apparatus 100may optionally include monitoring means 170 arranged to store in theduration database 160 the total duration of a particular item uponcompletion of receiving said particular item. The monitoring means maybe arranged to continuously analyze the items received by the receiver110 by identifying the particular item in the duration database 160 andverifying whether the duration data for the particular item is presentin said database. If the item cannot be identified in the database, themonitoring means add the record with the identification data andduration data for this item as it is specified above upon completion ofreceiving said item. If the item is identified in the database but noduration data for this item are stored in the database, the monitoringmeans add the respective duration data to the record of this item in thedatabase upon completion of receiving said item. In that way, theduration data for the particular item may be added to said durationdatabase.

The search means 150 may be arranged to search for at least one secondmedia content item using a plurality of media information sources suchas remote media content storage remotely located at the Internet or alocal network, media content stored in various formats at differentlocations and accessible via specialized search engines in the Internet,and so on. Particularly, the search means may be coupled to a localmedia content database 180 storing a plurality of media content items inany of the known formats. Said database 180 may store data pertaining tothe duration of the items or the duration may be calculated whenever theparticular item is requested. Having found more than one second mediacontent item, each of which has the duration substantially equal to theduration of the remaining part of the first item estimated by thetime-estimating means, one of the found second media items may beselected for further outputting by the output means 120. The searchmeans may select one of the found second items on the basis of variouscriteria such as the second item which may be more preferred by the useraccording to user preferences 190 stored in the apparatus. Each of thefound second items stored in the media content database may be rated inaccordance with the user preferences as it is known in the prior art,and then the second item having the highest score may be selected.

The apparatus may be arranged to indicate a low rating for the firstitem to be replaced in said user preferences 190. Other items stored inthe media content database 180 which are similar to the first item to bereplaced in conformity with one or many parameters, e.g. a genre,language, author, duration, etc. may also be ranked with the lowerrating to have the consistent rating for items in database 180.

The search means may also be arranged to indicate the selection of theparticular second item for replacing the particular first item in themedia content database 180 or the user preferences 190. In this way, ifsome other first item has to be replaced in future, the search means mayascertain whether the replacement in the past was indicated in thedatabase 180 or the user preferences 190 for the first item which issimilar to said future first item, e.g. by the genre, duration, etc.From said stored information about indicated replacement, the searchmeans retrieve the second item which was used in the past for replacingthe similar first item. Thus, said retrieved second item may also beused for replacing the first item in the future.

Alternatively, the search means may communicate a request to an externalrating source, e.g. the Internet, for determining the rating of thesecond item according to a rating list of (inter) national survey, andso on. Alternatively, the second item may be selected on the basis of adate when an entry, i.e. the record, for said item was created in thedatabase or a release date, e.g. of the song, etc. In this way, the itemthat has the newest date is selected.

In the broadcasting content, some “favorite” songs may be played severaltimes a day, while older and/or less liked songs may be played once aweek. The apparatus may be arranged to maintain a history of reproducingthe items, and to select the second item taking into account a frequencyof outputting the second item in accordance with said history.

A time of searching at least one second media item may vary from a veryshort period of time, e.g. less than a second which may not beperceptible by the user, up to several tens of seconds. This search timemay be taken into account to eliminate a pause between stoppingoutputting of the first item upon user input of the replacing commandand starting outputting of the second item when it is found. One of thepossibilities is to continue outputting the first item until the seconditem is found, and correspondingly to deduct said search time from thesearched duration of the second item. In other words, the second itemwith the duration decreased for said searched time may be searched for.In one example, an algorithm of setting an approximate, e.g. averagesearch time preset by a manufacturer, search time, and adjusting saidsetting time in the course of exploitation of the apparatus, e.g.depending on the amount of records to be analyzed in the database 180,may be realized. Similarly, a time required for estimating the durationof the remaining part of the first item as described above may also betaken into account.

Once the second media item is found and selected by the search means, itmay be further communicated to the output means to be reproduced to theuser.

It may happen that not one second item with the required duration isfound, and it is neither possible to find two or more second items, thesummary duration of which is substantially equal to the estimatedduration of the remaining part of the first item. For example, thesearch means may be arranged to search for the second item which has aduration not ten seconds longer and not several seconds shorter than theestimated duration of the remaining part of the first item, and theitems within said duration range are not present in the database 180.One of the measures to solve the problem is to find the second itemhaving the duration closest to said duration range. Then, the outputmeans may be arranged to adjust the output of the found second item tothe estimated duration of the remaining part of the first item. If sucha second item is temporally shorter than the estimated duration of theremaining part of the first item, then the outputting of the first itemis continued for the time difference between the duration searched forand the actual duration of the found second item. If such a second itemis temporally longer than the estimated duration of the remaining partof the first item, then the output means 120 may be arranged to fade outthe output of the second item upon expiration of the estimated durationof the remaining part of the first item.

In one of the embodiments of the present invention, the search means maybe arranged to search for a replacement of the item being outputtedwithout waiting for the user inputting the replacement command, e.g.since the output of this particular item commenced. In this way, asubstitution list may be created by the search means. The substitutionlist may comprise records of a time interval and a second item whichwould be selected by the search means if the user inputted the commandto replace the item being outputted at the moment when the duration ofthe remaining part of said item being outputted was equal to said timeinterval of the record in the list. The list may be renewed whenever theoutput of the item is started. Obviously, this may be realized todecrease the time of searching the second item.

It should be noted that the duration database 160 and media contentdatabase 180 may be arranged in one database storing the sameinformation, or in any other way.

The apparatus according to the present invention may be realized with amicroprocessor system comprising a processor controlling the operationof a television receiver in conventional manner. The processor mayreceive user control instructions from the remote control unit used bythe user. The processor may be coupled to a memory storing instructionsexecuted by said processor, the databases 160 and 180, and userpreferences 190, to enable the apparatus as described above. In anotherembodiment, hardware circuitry may be used in place of, or incombination with software instructions to implement the presentinvention. Obviously, the apparatus according to the present inventionmay be implemented in consumer electronics devices capable ofreproducing and operating with media content, such as a television set,set-top box, radio, personal computer, etc. in a manner apparent to theperson skilled in the art.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the method of the present invention. Instep 210, the first media content item is received by the receiver 110to be outputted by the output means 120 in step 220. Steps 210 and 220represent a regular use of the user device for reproducing mediacontent, such as playing audio by means of a CD player or radio, etc. Instep 230, the user may input a command to interrupt reproducing thefirst item and replace the first item by outputting the second mediacontent item.

In many situations, a consecutive playback of media items may bepredetermined by the user or content provider. Therefore, the followingsteps of the method may be performed to find such a second item whichmay be reproduced before an output of another item will start aspredetermined. In step 240, the duration of the remaining part of thefirst item is estimated, that is the part of first item that remains notoutputted because the user interrupted the outputting of the first item,as described above. In step 250, at least one second item having theduration which is substantially equal to the estimated duration of theremaining part of the first item is searched for. If more than onesecond item is found, one second item may be selected, as describedabove. If no second item can be found at all, the second item having theduration closest to the estimated duration of the remaining part of thefirst item is searched for. The found second item is outputted in step260.

The expression “substantially equal duration” should not be understoodin a limited way. The apparatus may be arranged to adjust the durationof the reproduction of the particular item. It is known to the personskilled in the art that the playback duration of the media content maybe slightly compressed or made a bit longer, which may not be noticed bythe user. The “duration” of the items may be presented as an intervalhaving a minimal and maximal length instead of the single value.

FIG. 3 shows a time diagram illustrating the functioning of one of theembodiments of the apparatus according to the present invention. Theapparatus 100 may be instructed to start outputting, e.g. reproducing,the first media content item 310 at the moment T1 and finish outputtingthe first item at the moment T4, which may be equal to the duration ofthe first item. Outputting of another item may be started by theapparatus at the moment T4. At the time T2, the user may instruct theapparatus to replace the outputting of the first item. By the time T3,the apparatus may find the second item 320 for substituting the firstitem, wherein the output of the second item has to be finished by thetime T4. During the period of time from T2 to T3, the step 240, step 250and the embodiments of said steps as described above may be performed.The output of the first item may be continued until the time T3 becauseotherwise nothing will be reproduced during the period of time from T2to T3. The output of the second item 320 is started at the moment T3 andfinished at the moment T4, which is equal to the duration of theremaining part of the first item that is decreased for the timenecessary to perform the step 240, step 250, etc. to find the seconditem. It may happen that the found second item is longer than the periodof time from T3 to T4. In that case, the output means 120 may fade outthe outputting of the second item at the moment T4.

The object of the invention is achieved in that the apparatus, methodand various embodiments of them are provided with reference to theaccompanying drawings. The apparatus allows the user to replace theoutputted item in a more efficient manner, and may be more easilyimplemented in the currently utilized consumer electronics devices thanis known in the prior art with the additional requirements imposed onthe content provider equipment and user devices. The various programproducts may implement the functions of the system and method of thepresent invention and may be combined in several ways with the hardwareor located in different devices. Variations and modifications of thedescribed embodiment are possible within the scope of the inventiveconcept.

1. An apparatus for outputting media content items, the apparatuscomprising: an output device arranged to output a first media contentitem to a user; a timer arranged to determine a duration of said firstmedia content item; a selector arranged for receiving a command toreplace said first media content item at a particular time whileoutputting said first media content item; a time-estimating devicearranged to estimate, upon receipt of said command, a remaining timenecessary for outputting a remaining part of said first media contentitem, the remaining time being measured from substantially saidparticular time to an end of the duration of said first media contentitem; and a search device arranged to search for at least one secondmedia content item, wherein a duration of said at least one second itemis substantially equal to said remaining time, wherein saidtime-estimating device is further arranged to estimate a time ofsearching said at least one second media content item, and to decreasesaid remaining time by said estimated time of searching.
 2. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein said output device is arranged to replacethe remaining part of said first media content item with said at leastone second media content item.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein saidoutput device is arranged to fade out the output of said at least onesecond media content item upon expiration of said remaining time.
 4. Theapparatus of claim 1, further comprising a database for maintainingdurations of the media content items, wherein said time estimatingdevice is arranged to determine a duration of said first media contentitem by identifying said first media content item in the database. 5.The apparatus of claim 4, further comprising: a receiver arranged toreceive broadcast media content items; and a monitoring device arrangedto identify a particular broadcast media content item and to store insaid database a duration of said particular broadcast media content itemupon completion of receiving said particular broadcast media contentitem.
 6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein said search device isarranged to search for said at least one second media content item inthe database.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said search device isarranged to establish for the first media content item being outputted asubstitution list having at least one element indicating the at leastone second media content item to be used for replacing said first mediacontent item at the particular time of outputting said first mediacontent item.
 8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the substitution listis renewed whenever a new first media content is outputted by the outputdevice.
 9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said search device isfurther arranged to select one of the second media content items havingthe duration which is substantially equal to said remaining time, basedon user preferences of the user.
 10. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinsaid search device is further arranged to indicate a dislike of the userof said first media content item in the user preferences.
 11. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein said first and second media content itemsare audio content items.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein saidfirst and second media content items are radio broadcast programs. 13.The apparatus of claim 1 wherein, in response to the command, the outputdevice is configured to interrupt outputting the first media contentitem upon expiration of a search time for finding the at least onesecond media content item.
 14. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein, inresponse to the command, the output device is configured to interruptoutputting the first media content item upon finding the at least onesecond media content item.
 15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein themedia content items includes a sequence including the first mediacontent item consecutively followed by a third media content item, andwherein the output device is configured to fade out the output of the atleast one second media content item upon expiration of the remainingtime when the duration of the at least one second item is longer thanthe remaining time and to output the third media content item upon theexpiration of the remaining time.
 16. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe search device is configured to search for two or more second itemshaving a total duration of substantially equal to the remaining time forreplacing the remaining part of the first media item with the two ormore second items.
 17. A consumer electronics device selected from atelevision set, personal computer, audio player, and portable equipmentfor outputting media content items, the device comprising: output devicearranged to output a first media content item to a user; a timerarranged to determine a duration of said first media content item; aselector for receiving a command to replace said first media contentitem at a particular time while outputting said first media contentitem; a time-estimating device arranged to estimate, upon receipt ofsaid command, a remaining necessary for outputting a remaining part ofsaid first media content item measured from substantially saidparticular time to an end of the duration of said first media contentitem; and a search device arranged to search for at least one secondmedia content item, wherein a duration of said at least one second mediacontent item is substantially equal to said remaining time, wherein saidtime-estimating device is further arranged to estimate a time ofsearching said at least one second media content item, and to decreasesaid remaining time by said estimated time of searching.
 18. A method ofoutputting media content items by a consumer electronics device, themethod comprising the acts of: outputting a first media content item toa user by the consumer electronics device, receiving a command toreplace said first media content item at a particular time of outputtingsaid first item, determining a duration of said first media contentitem, estimating, upon receipt of said command, a remaining timenecessary for outputting a remaining part of said first media contentitem, the remaining time being measured from substantially saidparticular time to an end of the duration of said first media contentitem, and searching for at least one second media content item, whereina duration of said at least one second media content item issubstantially equal to said remaining time, wherein the estimating actestimates a time of searching said at least one second media contentitem, and decreases said remaining time by said estimated time ofsearching.
 19. A computer program product enabling a programmabledevice, when executing said computer program product, to function as anapparatus for outputting media content items having durations, theapparatus comprising: an output device arranged to output a first mediacontent item to a user; a timer arranged to determine a duration ofoutputting of said first media content item; a selector arranged forreceiving a command to replace said first media content item at aparticular time while outputting said first media content item; atime-estimating device arranged to estimate, upon receipt of saidcommand, a remaining time necessary for outputting a remaining part ofsaid first media content item, the remaining time being measured fromsubstantially said particular time to an end of the duration of saidfirst media content item; and a search device arranged to search for atleast one second media content item, wherein a duration of said at leastone second media content item is substantially equal to said remainingtime, wherein said time-estimating device is further arranged toestimate a time of searching said at least one second media contentitem, and to decrease said remaining time by said estimated time ofsearching.